A manhunt continues Friday for a Cal Fire battalion chief accused of killing his 26-year-old fiancee, who was found dead by her sister inside a house on Fox River Way near Calvine Road in Sacramento County.

"We thought maybe something was wrong with the man. Maybe he'd been hurt of something," said Debbie Heitzman, who lives nearby and whose husband called authorities to report the abandoned pickup.

Heitzman said it was only after police and sheriff's deputies began swarming the area around the truck that she learned it was connected to a homicide case.

"It was very scary," she said. "I was a little scared, just to think that somebody actually did that and then abandoned the vehicle right there."

Sheriff's spokeswoman Lisa Bowman said some neighbors claimed to have seen the same pickup in the area on prior occasions, leading them to believe he may know people in the neighborhood.

Other witnesses said the vehicle had been parked there since the early morning hours Thursday.

At least one person said the truck was there the night before -- about four hours before the deadly stabbing took place.

Fleming works as a Cal Fire instructor in Ione, and has been with the state fire agency for 24 years.

Cal Fire officials are working with the sheriff on the investigation.

Fleming was a Madera city firefighter for three years before joining the state as a fire engineer when the city contracted with Cal Fire to provide fire protection in 1993.

He was promoted to fire captain in 2001 and to battalion chief in 2012.

Fleming was assigned to the fire academy about a decade ago, one of about a dozen battalion chiefs and fire captains who teach classes in fighting wildland and structure fires and dealing with hazardous materials.

The department is providing employees with counseling and other support.

Armed officers who work for the fire agency, most commonly as arson investigators, were providing security at the fenced and gated Ione academy, in case Fleming showed up.

KCRA 3's David Bienick and The Associated Press contributed to this report.